Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-12-28
CHINESE MARRIAGES.
Symbolic Traces of tho Ancient wedIook
by Force still Extant.

Symbolic Traces of tho Ancient WedIook
by Force stDi Extant.
Blackwood's Magazine.
A Chinese groom always sends com:
psny Of men for his bride, and very COM
monty at night, as though to make his
assault easier aud rescue more diff.
cult, as used 10 be the case in Sweden,
where marriages were commonly cele-
Grated at night and under the protection
Of armed mea. But ar the foundation OF
the Chinese marriage code is the law
which fOrbids q man to marry bride OF
the same surname as himself. AS each
surname is supposed to represent
clap, this law Of exogamy points
backwards to q time when even the
ceremonial Chinsman captured his bride
from foreign tribe, as possibly the ex-
istencs of asfEmale infanticide may be 8
reflection OF time when the Chinese
found their daughters objects Of attack
and their sons sources of strength. 1t is
suggestive fact also, that the symbol
representing the word Sings "tribe,
clan, or surnsme"-is CON posed tof two
parts, which mean 'fborn of a woman
This plainly has reference to time be-
fore the institution of marriage, when,
on account of promiscuity of inter-
course or OF the custom Of poly
andry, kinship was reckoned
through the females, and not through the
males. Another feature among the Cai-
nese, which may possibly point to pol
yandrus origin, is the fact that, as among
the Tamul and Telugu people of South
ern India, paternal uncles are usually
called fathers, the eldest being Pohfu or
Tsiu, "eldest father" or "great father"
and the younger Shunfu, or "younger
father" But still further piece of evil
dence is furnished by the circumstance
that cousins are called Tang hluug-ti, or
"home brothers," showing that the sons
OF brothers were ct one time reckoned as
brothers to each other.
AS, however, orthodox Chinese history
begins st period when the rites Of msr-
risge were in full force, it is only by these
faint echoes of 6 still earlier period that
We can trace back the ritualistic China
man to the level of less civilized races.
But even in Chinese history we find refer
ences to ancient sages whose mothers
names only were recognized, their
fathers being unknown even to
tradition. In this difficulty the
snnalists have had resort to the deus
ex machina, commonly produced to
explain any fact unintellIgible to them,
and tell US that to miracle must be
ascribed the event which has dropped out
of history. Thus Fun-he (B. G. 1852
27S7), the legendary founder of Chinese
civilization, is said to have been con-
ceived in consequence of his mother
treading in the footstep of god when
wandering on an island IN western
river. But it was by this fatherless
Fun-he that the marriage rite was,
according to tradition, first institu-
ted; and the light in which 1t WAS an
GENTLY regarded may be gathered from
the symbols which st an early period
were adopted to express the words signi-
lying "to marry" as applied respectively
to the marriage of the man and of the
woman. The man is said to Ts'u his
bride-that is to say, in accordance with
the gloss put en- the expression by the
symbol, "to seize on the woman" while
the lady is said to kis, or "woman the
hon Spknldt5 NJ her husband